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Kathy Stevens and sanctuary resident Buddy, the blind horse, pose for the cover of Kathy's Book "Where the Blind Horse Sings", available in bookstores everywhere and online. |
Thanksgiving. You sit down at the dinner table and, if you're nine out of ten Americans, you'll probably be partaking in a dinner menu that includesTurkey. It would probably be a bad time to begin a discussion about the farming practices that brought that animal to your plate, but it would be a quintessential example about factory farm produced meat, and the obliviousness in which we look at (or in this case, DON'T look at) animals as food.
We have long had an unusual relationship with animals as food. For many of us, it's best not to equate the cute little calf with veal or cold cuts in our sandwich as part of a once living creature. Moreover, we could never imagine treating other animals such as dogs or cats in the same way as we do "livestock" because, culturally, cows, pigs, ducks, chicken and other farm animals are just "food", right? These are questions that most people wouldn't stop to ponder.
The subject, however, IS something we should look at...if only for the modern farming practices that bring meat to the supermarket. Sure, you're thinking that farming has always been the same, but you'd be wrong. With the increase in population demand for food, small farms have quickly bloated into the mass factory farm of the present, and their practices--dicatated by BUSINESS practices, and not animal care--creates gross injustices to the animals it churns out as food. Animals are often confined in spaces so restricted, they cannot turn, or several animals are piled atop each other to save on space. Beaks and toes are cut to keep the frustrated animals from pecking at each other, milk animals are overbred, to continue their milk production...and because all of this CANNOT be healthy, most of the animals are injected with medicines to keep them from being sick, or injected with steroid and other growth hormones to get the animals to slaughter faster, or to "get more meat on their bones."
If you're feeling just slightly queasy about the thought of eating the meat from these animals, imagine the life of the animal. Confined in horrible conditions, there is often little relief in the life of a factory animal. However, there are a few heroes in this story. While much of the country can count on animal sanctuaries and shelters to save domestic pets, a new wave of FARM sanctuaries can also be found throughout the nation.
Catskill Animal Sanctuary is one such place. Kathy Stevens founded the shelter in 2001. Having been raised on a farm, then later pursuing a career as a teacher, she found a way to combine the two by helping farm animals and educating people about the ills of factory farming and the plight of many of the beings she has saved. The sanctuary is, indeed, just that: roughly 80 acres of peaceful countryside in the Catskills, NY. There, pigs, horses, goats, chicken, and many more beings are treated kindly and with respect, with huge, sprawling acres to graze, play, and relax on, food, and care that most of them had never known before their rescue.
The sanctuary is open to visitors in warmer weather, and the people are treated with as much respect as the animals. The tour standarly used for CAS guests does not proselytize in one way or another, but tales of many of the animals are told, and the stories themselves might just sway the staunchest meat-eater to look at the way animals are treated in the name of business.
The animals, in turn, are wonderful representatives of the sanctuary that saved them: there is Rambo the once angry ram, who was packed into a barn stall with 16 other animals before he was rescued. He has since moved past his trauma, and now
comes up and bows his head at guests so they can scratch his wooly neck. Policeman the pig was found in a drug raid in the Bronx. Big Ted the horse had spent most of his years in hard labor for several indifferent owners, before Catskill took him in. There are animals saved from being veal calves, chickens rescued from slaughter houses, and many more stories. Through it all, Kathy remains the caring, compassionate "mother"--this caring radiates in the respect to both animals and people who come into contact with Catskill Animal Sanctuary.
She was gracious enough to provide more insight about her work in her book, "Where The Blind Horse Sings". We recently interviewed her to learn more about her special work:
How did you start Catskill Animal Sanctuary?
Oh, that story is WAY too long to tell! People can read it in the introduction of my book, Where the Blind Horse Sings.
What is the sanctuary's mission?
We have a three-pronged mission:
1. to rescue and rehabilitate, both physically and psychologically, as many needy horses and farm animals as our resources allow
2. to heighten public awareness of factory farming and its impact on animals, humans, and the planet we share
3. to serve as a community resource to schools, social service agencies, churches, and other community organizations
What sort of animals live at CAS?
Horses, donkeys, cows, farm pigs, potbelly pigs, goats, sheep, geese, turkeys, chickens, ducks, rabbits.
If it were possible to illustrate a typical day at CAS, what would that look like?
It's not possible, for no day is "typical." Part of the daily routine is as follows:
1. A staff of three arrives at 7 am. They divide up the feeding routine, with each person preparing the meals for the animals for whom s/he's responsible. Now that is some feat, because diets are individualized, with various animals getting nutritional supplements, chopped fruit, etc.
2. Breakfast prep and feeding itself takes 90 minutes.
3. Animals are turned out after breakfast. The potbellies, a couple sheep, a couple big pigs and a couple chickens are allowed to free range over the entire farm. The rest are turned out into their pastures.
 4. While animals are being turned out, volunteers have arrived at 8 am and are beginning the never-ending job of stall and shelter cleaning, with manure and soiled bedding getting tossed, pitchfork full by pitchfork full, into the manure spreader. Every stall gets cleaned every day; the outdoor shelters get cleaned every day or every other day, depending on their usage--so as you can imagine, it doesn't take too long around here to build some SERIOUS upper body strength.
5. After stalls are cleaned, new bedding is brought in in wheelbarrows and water buckets and troughs are scrubbed and refilled.
6. At lunchtime, the special needs horses--Bobo and Buddy, both blind, ancient Casey and Ted, come back into the barn.
7. Preparation for dinner begins at 3 pm.
8. The daily routine continues in this way, while throughout the day, the animal care director is making his rounds according to what's on his health maintenance schedule: vaccinating horses and cows one day, dusting the chickens the next, trimming goat hooves the following. And, of course, there's always "critical care" -- someone has an abscess, another animal has a cold....
9. Now, if this were "a typical day," then life would be easy. But it isn't. Add to the routine above any of these or other similar scenarios, and you can imagine how crazy a day can be:
A tractor trailer comes down the driveway with 750 bales of hay that have to be unloaded and stacked, and 20 minutes later, a hay supplier who was supposed to come 4 days earlier arrives with 600 bales. Our hay room only has room for 800 bales. The first supplier, who usually gives us a week to unload the trailer, says "Sorry, guys, I need the trailer back tomorrow."
16 bloody (they've been fighting) roosters are dumped at the top of our driveway; the "dumper" speeds away.
the police bring 20 baby guinea pigs down at 11 pm.
Someone forgets to lock the gate, and 12 cows get out at night. we have to follow the trail of poop through the woods to find them: and then we have to bring them back!! (believe me: this is not as easy as it sounds!!)
Two 1,000-pound pigs get in a fight.
The tractor breaks down.
A distraught woman shows up with two boa constrictors she found suffocating in a plastic bag beside a dumpster.
We prepare for a rescue that involves 4 horses, but when the police arrive at the scene, there is such horror that 15 horses and 8 donkeys are removed...and they all come to CAS.
How can one adopt an animal from CAS?
The first step is to complete an application on our website at casanctuary.org. If an individual meets our criteria, which vary according to species, we'll contact them right away.
Is there anything wish for, in regard to the sanctuary (volunteers, etc)?
CAS is a young and growing organization. We always actively seek additional members and additional volunteers, and our Wish List is posted at casanctuary.org.
Please explain your Taking Turkeys Off The Table challenge.
It's a challenge to those who eat meat to stuff a pumpkin instead of a bird who has suffered from birth to death, and in doing so, to celebrate--TO REALLY FEEL GREAT ABOUT--their compassionate choice. To that end, we'll be posting some stuffed pumpkin recipes on my blog (blindhorsesings.com) that got rave reviews at an event here a couple weekends ago.
Anything else you would like to tell us about CAS?
1. Catskill Animal Sanctuary is the most loving place around! As I write in Where the Blind Horse Sings, one can feel the loving, healing energy as soon as he or she drives down the driveway. That's why animals heal so quickly here.
2. The LOVE part is easy: participating in the healing of broken animals is our greatest source of joy. (Not that the work is physically easy, mind you--it's completely exhausting!!) The tough part is the educational piece -- how does one encourage kind people who would never consider consciously hurting an animal to see and understand what they're participating in when they eat animals? That's the biggest challege, the most urgent need.
*For more information on CAS, to volunteer, or to donate, please see: www.casanctuary.org
"Where the Blind Horse Sings" is available at most local bookstores and at barnesandnoble.com and amazon.com
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